about us: the cooks, the writers and the testers….

July 2014
The day has come when I can proudly say I have immortalized our family food heritage. My self published cookbook, hot off the printing press, is now in the hands of my extended family. I hope the love that went into this project is palpable.

I have achieved my objective. Please Pass The Recipe was initially purpose driven, but time and the life affirming experience that blogging has proved to be has reset my motivation.

From here on in, I blog purely for pleasure!

Feb 2013 Sandra wrote:

Time marches on and twelve months later, what started as a mother/daughter blog has evolved into just me, doing what I love best after my family; cooking, writing and photographing. Leah recognized the need for me to make a record of the food I cook, so please pass the recipe was created. Leah gave me the kick start I needed, I’d not have started blogging otherwise, but now I’m off and running, Leah has left me to it.

I’ve been cooking for well over 40 years, many of them professionally. I have no formal training, but guided by a love of eating, respect for ingredients, an abhorrence of artificial additives and a good palate, I have developed an instinctive style that has never been subjected to weights, measures and timing scrutiny. It has been a good discipline for me.

My blog will eventually be turned into a book to pass the recipes to my daughters and grandchildren.

I rely heavily on fresh vegetables so my dishes are seasonal. I love herbs and spices and revel in the the wonderful multicultural cuisine that we call “Australian”.

Feb 2012 Leah wrote:

When some of your best family heirlooms are flavours, tastes and memories, how do you translate that into something tangible to pass down the generations?

How do you cook an old family favourite when you haven’t tasted it, let alone cooked it, since you were 10 years old?

Where do you go to for advice when you dream of pikelets by the fire, or lime and chicken risotto?

In the past, you would visit your Mum or Nan’s kitchen and they would teach you, apron to apron. Being the modern world we now live in, popping over to Mum’s kitchen would involve 2 ½ hours flying time in each direction; aka not likely to happen very often! We make do with phone calls and emails, but it’s not quite the same as cooking together, and often I jump online to Google a recipe, before I think to pick up the phone. As a consequence, the family cooking traditions get diluted and the special tricks and flavours get lost. It’s a shame, and a situation I decided to rectify with a fun long distance project.

Across the country and time zones (okay I’m only an hour behind during summer time, but it’s a pain!), Mum is going to teach me our family dishes through this blog, posting some online herself, and others sending to me to try and test, which in turn I be will sharing the recipe with you all. The ultimate goal? A book that we plan to publish to give to the next generation. They are growing up so quickly, and I would love for them to have a souvenir, if not a guidebook, to the food culture that is our family.

And so here it is…a virtual apron strings to apron strings of passing on family recipes and favourites….. I hope you get some great ideas, and have as much fun reading our journey as we do in creating it.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I am so happy to go through your posts. Great recipes. Most of all I like the idea of passing the recipes. Fantastic name “please pass the recipe”. So geneorus of you.
Happy Sunday!

I am so glad to have tripped over your virtual apron strings! You have done what my mum and I never got the chance to do properly so thank you for the opportunity to share in your recipe passing… I will be back 🙂

What a lovely blog you have here. I agree with you – what is better than having a cookbook blog to pass on your recipes to the next generation? I started my blog with a similar idea after moving to the Netherlands. Being French I felt like i had to fill a gap as cooking is not a big thing in the Netherlands but definitely is in France. I needed to educate and pass on my knowledge to my Dutch mate 😉 I am glad I found your blog – it’s always a pleasure to meet with other fellow bloggers and learning so much!

Hi Raphaelle, nice to meet you too. i’ve already peeked at your blog and love your approach. There has been quite a food revolution in Australia in my time. For a large proportion of the population, dining has become far more social, cooking and wine appreciation popular leisure activities. You may initiate a similar move in Holland, one post at a time! I’ll enjoy the journey…

Lovely idea and blog. There’s so much home cooking and family recipes being lost in our “fast food,” online generation. I can cook something off a recipe I find online, but I can’t make Korean dishes the way my mom does! Mostly because she’s made the dishes so often, there’s no recipe!

Thanks Shelley, I’ve been enjoying your adventures. I think cooking, travelling and photography go hand in hand, each is enhanced by the other. Ask your Mum to start measuring as she cooks and writing her recipes down then she can teach you to cook your favourite dishes how you like them. She’ll be flattered I guanrntee

Hi Aneela, I’ve never though to post about roast chicken, one of my favourite dinners. I always make a bread stuffing with soft crumbs, herbs, lemon zest and water to bind. Suff then truss the bird. Rub the bird all over with a little olive oil. Bake a 1.8kg bird for 1.5 hrs at 180C, uncovered, middle shelf. Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to rest in a warm place for 20 minutes before carving. The breast should be very moist (the stuffing helps here) and the skin crisp. I never turn the chicken, only the tray. If you pierce the skin you will lose the juices that keep the meat moist. I hope this helps, good luck..Sandra

Hi, Sandra. I’m leaving a long-overdue thank you for following my blog! I love the story behind how this all came to be, and the presentation of your recipes and the accompanying photos is absolutely lovely. I appreciate your gluten-free tag, as my daughter requires that and I, too, do much better without gluten. I’m not much of a cook, despite a well-equipped kitchen — sadly, the buy-it-and-it-will-happen approach hasn’t worked all that well for me 😉 I keep trying, but I have much more fun with my camera and computer! Perhaps your blog will be the turning point for me 🙂

Hi Ann I was scratching my head, i thought I had followed a photo blog, then along came vanillarock. Fantastic, I also run two blogs. The food blog is a couple of years old, thirdpersontravel fairly new. Just love your river reflection shot

Oops but glad you navigated your way around it. When I follow from some devices it doesn’t give you opportunity to change your site, and other times I just forget! Look forward to seeing all of yours- it’s a hectic business 😉

Hi- Ive just discovered your blog via Celia’s IMK and have to say I love the reason this blog exists. How lovely to share the special recipes that have been cooked for years in your family, and have them documented so the next generation will beable to enjoy them. I have just published a book with all the recipes of my mother in law. She turns 70 this weekend and we are all heading to the mornington peninsula to celebrate and one of the gifts is a copy of this book (she will be so suprised!)- filled with all our favourite recipes of hers, photos- all food related and of us eating, etc, plus quotes from each family member about favourite food memories…it’s just so nice to now have our own book filled with her recipes which she has cooked for us all with such love. I look forward to exploring your blog more xxx

Hi Kylie, what a lovely project, making a recipe book of your MIL’s recipes. She’ll be thrilled with her gift. My book of nostalgic family food is about complete, but blogging has me hooked, I’ll continue with my cooking/writing/photgraphic journey. I’ve met so many wonderful like-minded people both locally and overseas pursuing this project, that’s been a huge bonus. I already have my eye on your rhubarb crumble cake recipe, thanks xo

What a touching sentiment and follow through. It is wonderful how Leah recognizes the value of your talents and food memories. This is something that will live on forever. It is like leaving a part of yourself.

Pleased to meet you Sandra. You have a delightful blog here. You are absolutely right – what can be better than having a blog to pass your recipes onto the next generation? Those were my sentiments too as I started to blog and I am thoroughly enjoying it meeting with other fellow bloggers and learning so much! 🙂

it’s good to meet you too Indu. I celebrated a blogging birthday yesterday, 2 years, time goes by so quickly. I’ve made wonderful friends worldwide, cooked fantastic recipes from bloggers I follow and travelled vicariously into a multitude of kitchens, I look forward to reading your blog too

Oh Sandra! I’m not sure what happened by I don’t receive your posts in my reader anymore! It shows that I’m following you though. I wondered about you and went straight to your blog…low and behold, I found all these wonderful post that I’ve missed!!! I need to catch up and look into what is going on!

You too!! It’s been a bit of an issue! The blogs I have followed the longest, my faves are all having issues, as have I. There must be a new reader setting somewhere. Someone resolved it by unfollowing, then re following, easy solution, just have to find those who have disappeared!

I have nominated you to the Versatile Blogger Award.
The rules as per my understanding are;
• Give thanks to the person providing your nomination.
• Include a link to their blog
• Nominate 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award
• Finally, the hardest, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.
All the best, Cheers

So important to pass on our recipes… and most especially our family traditions. I have recipes from 100 years of my family and working on a Christmas cookbook putting some of the recipes and family stories together… Perhaps you will check in on my new blog sometime and add your voice there too. Best to you! Sue

My food project is a wonderful hobby that I share with my daughter and a natural follow up to a thorough family tree research project that included the cataloging of family photos, documents, artefacts and heirlooms. We were able to learn an enormous amount by putting faces to names, visiting significant places (that meant a trip to the UK) and learning some local history to give us context. Look forward to a good look at your blog!

I just love your blog and that’s why I’ve nominated you for both the Versatile Blogger Award and the Liebster Blog Award – to add to the list! I hope you choose to accept it. For more information, see my post on Awards: http://wp.me/p3Uj0i-Q7

Aw thank you so much!! Hopefully by the end of the week I will have found some time to create a post! Congratulations on your awards too, very deserving. I love the social history history aspect of your posts.😀

Thanks so much for visiting and liking my blog post – as you could probably tell, I’m very new – it’s very encouraging to have someone like a post on the first day! I love your focus on sharing recipes through generations. There’s nothing that reminds you of home and childhood in the same way as a parent or grandparent’s recipe.

G’day, and it’s a pleasure to meet you too Laura. I’ll be revisiting you tonight to scrutinise your gorgeous “mess.” Love what I’ve seen so far. I just love the share-share thing of blogging, hope to see more of you

I love this idea and your blog. Thanks for the follow of mine and I have just followed yours. I think this is such a beautiful way to pass on traditions, memories and family favourites. I cherish the folder that my grandma made for me when I was little with her recipes. it is my go to folder for when I need a dose of comfort.

I quite like the concept of your blog; I too started as a way of passing on recipes to my family, but it’s evolved into something bigger than I originally envisioned. I look forward to following what’s happening in your kitchen!

Thanks for another award Fae, I really do appreciate it! It’s incredibly busy time here, Christmas, family visiting from interstate, summer vacation time…..all my blog activity has been posted and scheduled well ahead. It may be February before I get back to regular time at the computer and in the kitchen. Thanks again for your support and acknowledgement. Happy New Year, Sandra

Hi Sandra, No worries at all! I highly value your work and believe you have one of the finest food blogs. This is one way of showing my appreciation. Have a lovely time with your family and enjoy the summer. Happy New Year to you and yours! 😀 Fae.

Hope you are having a great time with Family & Friends!
Congratulations Sandra, you have received another ☆ for your Blog of the Year 2012 award!
Other than adding another ☆ to your current badge, I do not expect any action to be taken, or
for you to generate a post (unless you wish to pass it on). Just enjoy the additional star.
Your blog has been awarded at:http://faestwistandtango.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/blog-of-the-year-2012-award-3rd-star/
Happy New Year !!! 😀 Fae.

I sat at my mum’s kitchen table and took notes. My mum doesn’t cook so much any more, but when she did, it was all up there in her head and automatically a pinch of this or that. Never in ounces or grams. You’ve got a fabulous project going.

Thanks, it’s required lots of weighing, measuring and timing discipline, but now I’m in the swing of it, it’s giving me a reason to vary week night menu routine, a reason to bake treats ( though the waistline’s expanding) and an excuse to photograph, my third love after family and food!